Hello there
In summer 2007, Stephanie, her brother, Jeff, and about a dozen friends and friends-of-friends descended on Lincoln Financial Field's parking lot hours before the Kenny Chesney concert started. There was tailgating to do!
Between the burgers, dogs, ribs, and rounds of a game tossing bean bags through a hole in a board, Stephanie found herself drawn to one of those friends-of-friends. Even though his musical tastes run more along the lines of Metallica, Oak joined the country fans at the invitation of Jeff's buddy, John.
Jeff pulled his sister aside. "So, what do you think of Oak?" he asked. Stephanie suspected a setup - Jeff and John deny this - but she didn't care. She liked him!
Stephanie's attention was fully focused on Oak until she was distracted by a nearby tailgater who bore a striking resemblance to Tony Graziani, then the quarterback of Stephanie's beloved arena football team, the Philadelphia Soul.
Was he, or wasn't he?
A stranger must have seen her looking. "Have you met the quarterback yet?" he asked her. Mr. Brave Stranger walked up to the big man. "Hi! Are you Tony Graziani?" Yup. "We're big fans!"
Before long, Stephanie was tossing bean bags with Tony. She's a physical therapist, and she couldn't help asking about his injured shoulder. Would he be in top form for the playoffs?
Suddenly, it was time for the music. Jeff asked his sister: "Are you going to the concert and talking with Oak, or are you going to stay here with Tony and lose your chance with this guy you like?"
Stephanie left her favorite quarterback in the parking lot. Oak swapped his fabulous seat with John - whose ticket was in the nosebleeds - so he could sit next to Stephanie.
At the end of the night, Oak asked for Stephanie's phone number. Dinner at Lucia's Ristorante in Vineland followed a few days later. They've been a team ever since.
How does forever sound?
Stephanie, who works at Woodstown Physical Therapy and Sports Rehab, and Oak, a pipefitter with Local 322, decided to make a road trip out of a friend's August 2009 wedding in Maine. Oak suggested they see Acadia National Park - specifically, he wanted to be at the top of Cadillac Mountain at sunrise.
"We got up at 4:30 a.m.," Stephanie said. "We get to the top, and it was miserable. We could barely see two feet away from each other, and we were wet from the fog blowing sideways."
So much for Oak's sunrise proposal idea.
Later, the couple went for a hike around Jordan Pond. "I'm a picture person, and I was stopping here and there to take pictures of him," Stephanie said. She climbed up on a large rock so that Oak could take a picture of her. He thought she looked especially cute up there.
"He proposes while I'm on top of this rock," Stephanie said. She was excited, to say the least. "We're lucky I didn't fall off!"
It was so them
Stephanie, now 29, who was raised in Woolwich Township, Gloucester County, and Oak, 34, were married at Pittsgrove Presbyterian Church in Daretown.
They wed one year to the day after Oak proposed.
Before meeting Stephanie, Oak was not as enamored with the Soul as she was - but he's always been big into football. He played at Cumberland Regional High School when he was growing up in Hopewell Township, and he's a lifelong Eagles fan.
On their drive back from Maine last year, Oak suggested the couple use either Eagles or Soul colors for their wedding. Stephanie chose the blue and charcoal of the Soul - a team that won a championship, went defunct when the Arena Football League went bankrupt in 2009, and is set to rev up again in 2011.
They held their reception for 160 at Running Deer Golf Course, also in Pittsgrove - a place owned by Eagles legend Ron Jaworski and his wife, Liz, and where Oak's brother, Jason, is assistant groundskeeper. Ron Jaworski was a majority owner of the Soul, and he and Liz presented the couple with some Soul hats and T-shirts, a bottle of Soul 2008 Championship wine, and two Soul wineglasses.
Stephanie's garter was fashioned from the lanyard that held her Soul season tickets.
On the cake table, the couple displayed photographs from their grandparents' weddings. All are deceased except Stephanie's grandmother, Florence String, 97, who could not travel for the wedding.
In lieu of favors, the cat lovers made a donation to Maddie & Friends, a Salem, N.J., nonprofit that provides reduced-cost spay and neuter services to reduce the number of unwanted animals.
This was unexpected
When Stephanie was just about ready for the wedding, she opened her shoe box and found a sweet "to my wife" card from Oak, who is generally not a card-giving kind of guy. "He even wrote something in it, not just 'Love, Oak,' she said.
Awestruck
Stephanie waited at the back of the church with her father, Don, until the doors opened, signifying it was time to walk down the aisle. "This is the moment that I had seen in movies since I was a little girl," she said. "I was walking out into the church I had grown up in, on my wedding day."
When those doors opened, Oak felt himself break into a cheesy grin. "She looked beautiful," he said.
Discretionary spending
A bargain: The bride, her bridesmaids and her mother and mother-in-law made pew decorations from silk flowers, blue ribbons, and baskets. Stephanie estimates she saved close to half of what floral arrangements would have cost. The couple donated the decorations to the church.
The splurge: Photographers Autumn and Craig Pittelli. "I didn't care what the budget said, they were who I wanted, and pictures last forever," Stephanie said.
The getaway
The couple, who live in Woodstown, Salem County, took a long weekend in Cape May, to be followed by a week in Hawaii in January. The trip was carefully timed so as not to conflict with the NFC Championship or the Super Bowl.
Love: BEHIND THE SCENES
Officiant
Rev. Julia Pizzuto-Pomaco, pastor of Pittsgrove Presbyterian Church in Daretown, N.J.
Venues
Pittsgrove Presbyterian and Running Deer Golf Course, Pittsgrove, N.J.
Catering
Running Deer
Music
DJ's Available Sound and Light, Moorestown, N.J.
Flowers
Laura Davis, Savannah's Garden, Elmer, N.J.
Gown
Jay West Bridal, Haddonfield
Photography
Pittelli Photography, Williamstown, N.J.
Invitations
MyGatsby.com
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Love: DO YOU HAVE THE DATE?
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